P. and I were thrilled when we heard that our great friend A. was in town with his son N. We met them both exactly nine years ago, on Devereaux Beach in Marblehead, thirty minutes North of Boston. I had only moved to Boston then, and I remember telling P. “ils sont français” when I saw them play on that beach. There were the swimming suits that helped, but also this je-ne-sais-quoi about how they interacted that convinced me that they were French. We started chatting and exchanged phone numbers. I love this memory of our first encounter. We have been great friends since then.

Because A. used to live in Boston for quite many years, we were looking forward to spending time together like we used to in the old days. We would talk about life here, with things that have or haven’t changed, and about Paris too, because this is where A. and N. have now been living for many years. Our plans for the evening were loose. We knew that we wanted an easy and simple dinner, probably a Thai restaurant where P. likes to have lunch and where we all indulged in plates of delicious drunken noodles, and I decided to bring dessert for us to share later in the evening. Since I had not been given much notice and was left short of time, I grabbed the opportunity to prepare a quick recipe from Epicurious, which I had marked “to try” a month ago: Cheesecake-Marbled Brownies. The experience was fun. Contrary to other recipes that I would typically try from my zillions of cookbooks, I particularly enjoyed reading comments left from previous readers that had tried the recipe. The recipe was scoring a 3 1/2 out of 4, from 28 readers. A lot of people mentioned that the brownie batter was not chocolaty enough, some were fully thrilled, others disliked it altogether. Moi ? Well, I decided to adapt keeping in mind what I had just read, along with using my own judgment to modify some of the suggested steps:

This is What I Did:

I added more chocolate, although I also used 70% Valrhona chocolate instead of unsweetened as suggested in the original recipe.

I skipped the vanilla in the brownie batter.

I modified the way the brownie batter had been prepared, adding steps that I sensed would help for a better brownie result.

I sifted the flour.

I decreased the brownie preparation sugar content.

I cooked the brownies for 5 min less than suggested.

We ate them at room temperature.

I already did a variant, using Amaranth Flour** and White Rice Flour, with more chocolate again, a touch less butter, making for a great Gluten-Free version. It is my father-in-law who will be pleased! He is coeliac.

In a few words, we really all thought that they were great — well I think, since by 11 pm, nothing was left! I particularly enjoyed the balance between chocolate and cheesecake, one not overpowering the other (I would always go for more chocolate if asked). I am already looking forward to trying even more variants of the recipe, following whims of mine — I have tons of ideas — and hoping for a new visit of A. and N. soon. Or maybe next time, it will have to happen on my next trip to Paris in the fall, where I am sure I can easily bring in a batch of these cheesecake-marbled brownies. If I was able to bring Jeep shocks for my brother without the customs agents raising their eyebrows, brownies will be a piece of cake, won’t they? But then, in my own experience, you can really bring anything to France…

**Amaranth Flour is a type of flour obtained from seeds coming from the Amaranth plant. It is a great source of protein, manganese, magnesium, calcium, fiber and iron (higher than wheat), with a mild peppery and nutty flavor. It can be found in health stores.

Cheesecake-Marbled Brownies, adapted from Epicurious

For about 16 brownies

You need:

For the Brownie Batter:

3 oz chocolate 70% cocoa (I used Valrhona)

2/3 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

1 stick unsalted butter, diced

3/4 cup cane sugar

2 large eggs

Pinch of salt

For the Cheesecake Batter:

8 oz cream cheese, softened (I used Philadelphia)

1 large egg yolk

1/3 cup cane sugar

1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Steps:

To prepare the cheesecake batter, mix all ingredients together, to obtain a smooth creamy texture. Keep.

Preheat your oven at 350 F.

Line an 8 x 8 inch pan with parchment paper.

To prepare the chocolate batter, melt the chocolate and butter in a double-boiler. Let slightly cool.

Beat together the eggs and sugar with a pinch of salt until light and pale in color.

Add 2 Tbsp chocolate first, then fold in the rest of the chocolate, trying to keep the preparation as light as possible.

Sprinkle the flour on top, and fold in delicately.

Pour the preparation in the pan.

Add the cheesecake batter on top and make a swirly design in it using a fork or knife.

Cook in the oven for 30 min. At this point, the brownies will be slightly gooey still. If you prefer them more cooked, increase the cooking time by 5 min or more.

Let cool in the pan before cutting, and if any are left, store them wrapped in the fridge, bringing to room temperature before eating.

I cannot thank you enough for this recipe!! Just recently, I had a chocolate log marbled with cream cheese and I was bowled over, vowing to try and replicate it because the lady who made it doesn’t sell the stuff. I have to try this one. 🙂

Those brownies look amazing! I recently tried making cream cheese brownies but wasn’t entirely happy with how they turned out. Not cream cheese-y enough for me to make it worth adding the cream cheese. But since you thought these were good and I still have hope for finding a delicious cream cheese brownie recipe, I will save yours. 🙂 I’ve also been intrigued recently by amaranth flour so I appreciate your little writeup about it. I will buy some soon.

Does cream cheese exist in France? I made some cheese cakes in france, and I tried all the cheeses to see whihc would be cream cheese, i ended up with those little kiri squares, opening up 3 boxes of 12 squares for one cheesecake 🙂

Brownies and cheesecake: two of our favorites. If I show this recipe to my husband, he will say Yum!

I would like to try your recipe with a more sophisticated cheese than Philadelphia. La Prunelle, a Montreal restaurant bakes their cheese cake with Saint-Honoré cheese. Divine. Saint-Honore cheesecake marbled brownies sounds promising. The saltier taste of the cheese would complement the dark chocolate taste. I will keep you posted on the results.

Beautiful photos as always! Very nice to have a guide for comparing the finished product. Although I have a weakness for baked sweets, baking is a gap in my culinary skill set. Just have to practice more and it will come! Thank you for your generosity!

Béa
I don’t know what it is about coming here. I’m not really a sweet person but your things (maybe it’s your words as much as the photos) always seem soothing. I really like the looks of these brownies and especially the insight into how you changed things.

These cheesecake brownies look beautiful…not to mention, delicious! I love browsing Epicurious for recipes, and have found many that are now in my list of tried and true. These will go on my must try list as well. 🙂 I love your photos!

When I opened this up Béa, I had to laugh as they looked just like our Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Slice! Then I read a bit further and went to the link on epicurious and went mmmm. I wonder if this recipe was originally on the back of a Kraft Philly pack as we got this recipe off a friend 15 odd years ago and she had been making it for at least 5 years before that and we live in Australia. mmmm.

This slice always proves to be a hit wherever we take it and are always asked for the recipe.

Cheesecake just fits with everything, doesn’t it? My wonderful discovery was adding it on top of muffins – only that…it kind of makes you want to eat the top part and then take another muffin! But with brownies – there wouldn’t be such problem, i guess…:)

Hi,
I am a french reader, living in San Francisco. I was very happy to try this recipe which makes me think of “black bottom cupcakes”. I slightly reduced the amount of sugar…, this was delicious! Thanks (for the pictures too!).

Béatrice Peltre is a food writer, stylist and photographer working out of her home studio in Boston.
She is a regular contributor to the Boston Globe Food Section, and her work has appeared in many publications
such as Saveur, Food and Wine, Whole Living, Fine Cooking, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, the Huffington Post,
the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Edible Boston, Living France, the New York Times Diner’s Journal,
and in many other international magazines.